A vehicle closure may be opened to provide access to an area of the vehicle or closed to secure it. A vehicle closure may be called a door, decklid, hood, or top, among other things. A vehicle door is typically a type of closure that is in front of an opening which is used for entering and exiting a cabin area of the vehicle. A vehicle door may be hinged or attached by other mechanisms such as tracks, such as often used to access cargo areas of vans. A rear door for access to the cabin or a cargo area on a vehicle may be referred to as a hatch or tailgate. Traditionally the hatch is a rear door that swings upward to provide access to a cargo area of a hatchback style vehicle. Traditionally a tailgate is a rear door that is hinged at the bottom and is common on station wagons, pickup trucks, and sport utility vehicles.
A decklid, also known as a trunk lid or boot lid, is a closure that allows access to a storage or luggage compartment. Typically this storage compartment is separate from the cabin area of the vehicle, but that is not always the case. A hood, which may also be referred to as a bonnet, is a closure that allows access to an engine (or prime mover) compartment. A top is a form of vehicle closure that may open the cabin of a vehicle to the open-air, and the kinds of vehicles that have a top are generally referred to as convertibles.
Most vehicle closures require a means for securing the closure to the vehicle when the closure is in a closed position. A latch and striker combination may be used with a vehicle closure to releasably engage the latch on to the striker to secure the closure. Typically the latch is located on the closure and the striker is located on a vehicle part proximate to the opening the closure encloses when closed, although these components may be swapped. The striker typically extends away from the vehicle to which it is attached allowing the latch to engage and at least partially wrap around a portion of the striker to secure the closure.
The latch and striker combination establish the distance the closure is from a vehicle part proximate the closure when the closure is secured. The striker may be attached to the vehicle part. The vehicle part may be a body panel of fascia, or a body panel or fascia may be attached to the vehicle part to which the striker is attached with a portion extending toward the closure. The latch and striker combination establish the distance the closure is from the vehicle part, body panel, and/or fascia. Large distances between the closure and the vehicle may create an appearance issue for customers.
Decklid to bumper fascia distances may sometimes be larger than door to body panel distances. The decklid to bumper fascia distance may increase because of larger stack-up tolerances between the Decklid and Fascia as compared to other closures. Decklids may also need to set an over-travel distance in a generally vertical direction to accommodate for when the decklid is slammed down. This over-travel may be of the order of 2.0 mm and an improper decklid to fascia distance may lead to paint chipping due to contact when closing. Thus the minimum gap on most decklid to fascia in the vertical direction is on the order of 5-7 mm. The decklid margins to the tail-lamps and body may be equally critical and are a largely influenced by the result of the transverse attachment locations of the latch and striker to the decklid and vehicle part.